Second Chances
by Magery
Summary: ON HIATUS. What do you give a man who's lost everything, a man who's got nothing left to live for? Another reason to fight? A new purpose? Perhaps you give him all that, and more. Perhaps you give him... a second chance.
1. Lost and Found

**Sometimes, the only way to find something is to lose everything else.**

* * *

The crimson queen ascended in the lift, in the grey metal box that was the only entrance to Zero's quarters. Officially, she was here to summon – no, not summon, the masked man was not someone you could summon. Officially, she was here to request his presence down in one of the Ikagura's numerous warehouses, but unofficially? Unofficially she was here for Lelouch, for the man behind the mask, the man who'd lost the dearest thing he had – his sister, a kind, sweet girl by the name of Nunnally.

Kallen had always liked Nunnally, and her experience of the crippled princess whilst imprisoned had done nothing to change that. If anything, it had made her like her even more. But now she was gone, and from what she remembered of last few moments before the retreat, Lelouch had not taken it… well.

She was many things, but what defined Kallen to the rest of the world was her captaincy of the Zero Squad. She was Zero's personal guardian, a sword to strike his enemies and a shield to defend his wellbeing – both physical _and_ mental. And right now, she sensed he needed all the defending he could get. The thought of someone comforting Zero, no, the thought of Zero _needing_ comforting would have made her laugh at any other time, but this wasn't a time for laughter. Millions of people incinerated, turned to ash in an instant by Britannia's newest weapon. Countless Black Knights lost forever. No, it was most certainly not a time for laughter.

The lift opened and she walked out slowly, wondering what she should say to him. Wondering what she should do, wondering how Lelouch was feeling inside, wondering if there was anything she _could_ do. She reached the door and knocked, once, twice, three times, but there was no response. The room was soundproofed, from what she remembered, so hopefully the fact she couldn't hear anything was attributed to that and not something more… sinister. She called out; perhaps he just didn't hear the knocks, or didn't think whoever was out there was important enough at a time like this.

"Zero, are you there? Can I come in?"

No response.

"It's me."

This time the door slid open, just before she had time to finish what she was saying. It was like the door had opened once Lelouch knew it was her, not because of what she was officially here to do. Her first glance around the room confused her – C.C. was nowhere to be found. Perhaps she was sleeping somewhere, but no, at a time like this? Not even that lazy witch would do something like that, not with everything that had happened. But she had a job to do; that was a problem for another time.

"Ohgi asked me to bring you to Warehouse Four."

"Why there?" His voice was soft, lacking the vibrancy of command that sometimes sent shiver down her spine, like it had been sucked out, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind.

"Sorry, I didn't really get the details."

Before she could say anything else, a shy voice called out from behind a door, as an alabaster face framed by green peeked out around the side.

"Master? Please take off your clothes; I'll do the best I can. I promise!"

That… that was C.C.'s voice! In the midst of her fury, and although she'd never admit it, her jealousy, Kallen didn't notice how different the grey witch sounded, nor did she remember that C.C. usually had no problem with flaunting her closeness to Lelouch.

"What the hell have you two been doing in here? While I've been rotting in a cell!" A little corner of Kallen's mind tried to tell her there was something she was missing, but she ignored it – hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

"No, you've got it wrong!" Lelouch cut across her; it seemed to Kallen that life had returned to him, at least for a little while. Before she could respond, he started to speak again – this time his tone was one of sadness. One of loss.

"She was… C.C. lost her memory."

She lost her… how? Why? Now that Kallen looked closer, she could see the truth of it. The C.C. that trembled slightly behind the door wasn't the same C.C. who didn't seem to fear, or even care, for anything. There was something… missing in her eyes; they didn't have that tired, ageless look any more, the look that Kallen would rather die than admit to being jealous of. Lelouch started to speak again, slowly, each word like he was slamming another nail in his own coffin.

"It happened because of me, so the C.C. you knew is gone now. Erased. And it's my fault."

Erased? But the witch was immortal! What could possibly do that to her? It had to be Geass, or at least something related to Lelouch's cursed power. Maybe after the meeting she'd ask him about it – with C.C. seemingly gone, he was the only one who could explain…

Kallen realized something almost horrifying. With Nunnally dead, and C.C. no longer the C.C. anyone knew, Lelouch was all alone. His beloved sister lost. His closest confidant gone as well. And yet it didn't even look like he'd cried!

"Lelouch… are you all right?" Her words were hesitant, like she was stepping past some invisible line she shouldn't cross, and in a way she was. Q-1 did not ask Zero if he was 'all right', no, she simply followed him. Followed and obeyed. But this was Lelouch; there was no trace of Zero in the man she saw before her. He laughed a quiet, bitter laugh. The sort of laughter that tastes like ash.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Lelouch, when my brother died, I… it was hard. Really hard. But aft—"

"I don't need your sympathy. I don't need _anything_ from you_._" He spat the words out, but there was no venom in them, merely a sort of tired desolation that reminded her of… of brokenness.

"Damnit Lelouch, your sister is _dead_! You don't even know who C.C. _is_ now! There's nothing wrong with grieving!"

For the first time in their conversation, he raised his head, staring directly into her eyes. His gaze was dull, empty, like the man behind the mask had been erased along with everything else he held dear. It matched the way he spoke.

"You don't think I don't know that? They're _gone_, Kallen. _Gone." _The last word slipped out as a whisper, like merely mentioning their fates would turn them into truth, into the reality they already were. It slipped out like the tears that trickled slowly down his cheeks; they splashed to the floor one by one, like blood seeping from an open wound. The open wound where his heart used to be.

"So tell me… what am I supposed to _do_?" The anguished cry of despair echoed throughout the room – in the back of her mind, Kallen saw C.C, or at least the woman who was once the witch retreating towards what must be Lelouch's bedroom. But she had more important things to worry about. Lelouch was here, and he was crying. So she did the only thing she could - she hugged him. Q1, the captain of Zero's personal forces, but never anything more than a soldier to him, in her eyes, sat down on the couch next to the broken wreck of her leader, and held him tight against her. She hoped he couldn't hear her heart pounding at his closeness.

"Oh, Lelouch..."

He didn't react, didn't move as she slowly shifted her body until his head was resting against hers, tucked into her shoulder. The only thing that showed he was still alive were the tears dampening the front of her uniform, and the quiet sobs that were the only thing breaking the silence between them, the silence that reminded Kallen of her brother's funeral. There was never an official ceremony-the Stadtfeld family quite simply did _not_ have a son called Naoto, oh no-but Ohgi had arranged something. Kallen was the first one to arrive, and by far the last to leave the patch of earth that held his corpse, and the whole time she hadn't spoken. The only sounds she'd made had been those of despair, and those same sounds were all that she could hear right now. And so she held him, hoping that maybe her embrace told him he wasn't alone. That he'd never be alone. For to Kallen, Lelouch was more than just her commander, more than just a faceless symbol of hope. She'd tried to fight it at first, after finding out who he was, after learning of his cursed power and everything that went with it, but she'd given up long ago. Lelouch was more than just Zero to Kallen - he was the man she loved. If only it were so in return.

Time passed. Kallen wasn't quite sure how long it took, but in the end Lelouch literally cried himself to sleep. He must have been up all night, planning the attack, and how to rescue Nunnally, and the million and one things only he could do.

Her phone rang, and, reaching absently around with one hand to find it whilst the other still held Lelouch, she glanced at the caller ID, starting slightly as she realised she had supposed to have been bringing Lelouch to one of the Ikagura's storage bay - Warehouse Four, as far as she could remember. Not that there was any chance of that now; Lelouch was in no state for any sort of meeting with anyone. He needed time to rest, to be a brother rather than a leader. Kallen answered the phone, almost taken aback by the Ohgi's demanding tone.

"Kallen! Where are you? And where's Zero?"

"I'm in Zero's quarters, and so is he. I know I was supposed to bring him, I'm sorry, but what's got you so worked up?" she said in a hushed voice so she wouldn't wake Lelouch.

"We need to see him now!"

"Why?"

There was a pause, like Ohgi was searching for an answer.

"I can't tell you right now."

"Why not?"

"I, uhh... Never mind that, we need to see him now!"

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Zero's been hurt pretty badly and I'm not talking physically."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't really think I'm allowed to explain, but I'll try and tell you what I can. You know C.C.? Something... happened to her recently, and she's become a complete amnesiac. She doesn't know who Zero is any more, who I am, or anything like that. She's gone from his closest confidant to a complete stranger, and it cut him pretty badly. And I really, really shouldn't be telling you the next bit, but before this battle, Zero wasn't an only child. The FLEIJA took a lot more away from him that just a battle - it took his sister. The only family he had left.

I know he doesn't really seem human, but the man and the mask are two different people, and right now the mask is broken. He still is Zero, though, so if you can wait a few hours I'm sure he'll be fine."

Silence fell - Kallen thought it was probably because Ohgi was digesting the fact Zero could feel pain, which is why the next question completely surprised her.

"Kallen, have you seen Zero's face?"

It took her a while to respond, because she wasn't sure how much to tell him. But it was Ohgi, one of her oldest friends, and she was pretty sure Zero trusted him, so she supposed she should at least say something.

"... Yes. But before you ask, yes, I know his real name and no, I'm not telling you anything more than that. Remember what he said when we first met him? He wears the mask for a reason, and trust me; it's a pretty important reason."

"So you know who he is?"

"Yes. Why are you asking me these questions?"

"Oh, uhh, no reason. Fine, we can wait a few more hours. Just make sure you bring him!"

"Okay, okay, I already said I would."

The call ended, and Kallen placed the phone down and returned her arm almost unconsciously to where it had previously rested across Lelouch's chest, a puzzled expression on her face. Ohgi was normally calm and gentle - she'd never heard him being so, well, almost aggressive on the phone? And what was with the abrupt subject changes - it was like he was trying to hide something. Not that it really mattered though, she was sure Lelouch would be able to handle whatever it was they wanted him to for. Like she said, he _was_ Zero, after all. Kallen wasn't a fool - she knew a few of the Black Knights were wondering if following Zero really was their best bet, but it was just idle chatter around a meal, quickly shut down by various, different arguments.

Perhaps that was why Ohgi had seemed so evasive - in light of such a disastrous battle, even if Britannia's superweapon had inflicted just as many casualties on them as it had on the Black Knights, as well as Lelouch's behaviour just before the ceasefire... _Oh dear_, she thought as she yawned unconsciously. _I told them Lelouch had a little sister killed in the blast, and the moment the explosion had died away, he started demanding that they find Nunnally to the exclusion of all else. Ohhhh dear. I wonder wha... _Her head hit the back of the couch, but she didn't even notice - probably because she was sound asleep.

Kallen must have been more tired than she realized, because when she awoke from what could only be described as her catnap, according to her phone it was about two hours or so after Ohgi's call. She guessed the battle had worn her out more than usual as her eyes moved slowly around the room, wondering what had awoken her. It couldn't have been Lelouch - as far as she could tell, he was still fast asleep, and regardless of his current state of consciousness, he was still within the circle of his arms. She tried to avoid thinking about how much he felt like he belonged, for down that route lay madness. Madness and despair, for while she might have crossed the line long ago, Lelouch didn't seem to recognize there was another side _to_ the line.

Of course, she was dismissing all evidence to the contrary, but the problem with dealing with someone like Lelouch is that she was never sure that anything he did wasn't part of some brilliant, manipulative and downright fiendish plan to achieve some unknown purpose. Which made it all the easier for the part of her that thought she wasn't good enough for him to rationalize everything nice he did for her as, say, another way to secure her loyalty and nothing more. That he was just using her, like he used everyone else. But what she'd never tell anyone, what she refused to tell herself, was that she wouldn't care about any of that if he spoke three simple words. He could use her, abuse her, play her like a pawn, do whatever he wanted, and she would still protect him. Still defend him, still shield him, if only he would... if only he would love her.

Kallen Kozuki was many things, but above them all she was ruled by her emotions. Often it was anger that held the casting vote, and she was not ashamed of that, because anger tempered steel faster than any fire ever could. But sometimes it wasn't anger that overcame her - like anger, it stole her reason, and like anger it set her alight, made everything seem just that much more real. Made her feel alive, patching the holes left by what she'd seen, by what she'd done. It had everything in common in anger, like the two sides of a coin tumbling through the air, switching between sides so often they morphed into one, like his face and his mask. And sometimes she couldn't tell them apart, not when she was looking at him. But it wasn't anger. It could never be anger.

She knew she sounded ridiculous in her head, that her thoughts were jumbled, jumping from one extreme to another, flitting from point to point like moths around a flame, but in the end that's what he did to her. She didn't even know what to think, not when she danced between love and anger and everything in between. Perhaps that was why she was so good at what she did - because if she focused hard enough, she could ignore everything else, could let the anger rise above everything else.

Kallen was saved from descending further into introspection by, of all things, Lelouch's timely awakening as he yawned and shifted slightly, eyes blinking as they adjusted to the light The fact that the reason for, and somewhat the subject of her restless thoughts was the one distracting her from them brought a smile to her face, just as Lelouch turned his head to face her.

* * *

Lelouch slowly opened his eyes, blinking away sleep and the sudden onset of light, wondering what had awoken him, or more importantly, why he was asleep in the first place. He remembered Kallen coming to tell him about a meeting, but then she'd said something about Nunnally and C.C. and he didn't remember much past that point, apart from despair and an angel's bright blue eyes.

The mention of their names, even in the confines of his consciousness, still sent vicious spikes through his heart, but they weren't the same as before. This pain was fresher, sharper, but also more bearable. Before, it'd been everywhere, invading his mind, invading his soul, tendrils constricting everything he did, everything he thought, like a virus consuming him from within. Now it was like he'd been shot, but only once, not over and over again like the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune were pelting him from every side, each projectile a burning brand on what remained of his humanity. The pain had been dulled somehow; it still hurt—he didn't think it'd ever stop hurting—but something had sealed over the cracks, taken the pain and put it... elsewhere.

His melancholic monologue was interrupted by his mind finally recognizing where he was. He was in his room - that much was obvious from the general layout of what he could see, and the fact he wasn't wearing a mask and yet was still alive. But why had he fallen asleep, and what was he resting on? It didn't feel like the couch - it was too soft and yet too unyielding, and there was the fact that the couch didn't have two arms (at least, he thought they were arms) to wrap around his waist so he wouldn't fall down. Lelouch turned his head slightly as something red flickered at the edge of his vision - later, he would realize it was a lock of Kallen's hair, but for now he was distracted by the sight of her.

The first thing he noticed was her smile. It was a smile he'd never seen before, and for some reason disappointment flashed through his mind, like he wished she smiled like that more often. It reminded him of Nunnally, and the way she looked at him sometimes, but strangely the reminder didn't hurt, like he was remembering something that could only ever be associated with happiness. And it made him feel… it made him feel a lot of different things, and none that made sense to the man of cold reason and logic he'd always pretended to be.

It died almost as soon as she noticed him looking at her, replaced with a faint blush that dusted her cheeks with crimson. He frowned unconsciously, disappointed that she'd stopped smiling, and oddly… unhappy that she'd done so because he looked at her. Her arms hastily disengaged from his body, shifting him to the side so he wouldn't fall over as she hesitantly asked him a question. The blush still hadn't gone away.

"Lelouch, are you… feeling better?"

"Yes, I am. Although I don't know why. The last thing I remember is you saying something about Nunnally and C.C., and then I woke up. You're very comfortable, by the way."

Normally, the last almost-barb would have drawn some reaction from her, but for some reason Kallen ignored it, her face an odd mixture of relief and disappointment. What had she been worried about? Not that it… well, it did matter, it was Kallen, but he did have important business to attend to, like this meeting he'd apparently been supposed to go to. Before he could ask about it, Kallen's voice distracted him.

"That's good to hear." She smiled as she spoke, a smile that seemed to Lelouch to be somehow… real. Like she was actually glad to hear he, not as Zero, but as Lelouch, was feeling better. He smiled in return.

"So, about this meeting I was supposed to go to," Lelouch glanced at the clock, "about two and a half hours ago."

Kallen blinked a few times, like she wasn't expecting such a rapid change of subject, but responded nonetheless.

"Well, after you fell asleep, Ohgi contacted me asking me what was going on, so I told him you… weren't feeling well, and that you couldn't make it for a few hours. He seemed really insistent on you going, demanding actually, but he wouldn't tell me why, or what the meeting was about. I'm a little confused, actually."

Lelouch's mind started whirring, processing the new information. Ohgi wouldn't tell Kallen about the purpose of the meeting, so it had to be something he didn't want Zero to know, or didn't trust Kallen with. Considering it was Ohgi, Lelouch considered it to be almost certainly the former. However, even though he wasn't supposed to know what the meeting was about, his presence was required importantly enough for Ohgi to try and order Kallen around, knowing full well she was outside the normal command structure and technically outranked him.

But what made the least sense about the situation as a whole was that nobody had come to try and get him. If Britannia had attacked again, or launched another F.L.E.I.J.A, or the situation of the war itself had changed in any way, he knew at least Todoh or Deithard would have insisted on him being there, because they best of anyone understood how important he was to the Black Knight's cause.

So whatever was going on wasn't something he was supposed to know about beforehand, which wouldn't give him any time to prepare anything before he arrived, if he took the cynical viewpoint. It was important enough that Ohgi would try to order Kallen around, but not important enough to tell him about, or to come and fetch him. The more Lelouch considering the information, the more confusing, and the more worrisome it became.

Kallen must have noticed how deep he'd fallen into thought, because her voice broke through his concentration as she asked him a question.

"Lelouch? Is something wrong?"

He considered his answer for a little while, before deciding that it couldn't hurt to tell Kallen what he was thinking – maybe she'd know something else about it.

"I'm actually starting to get a little worried. There's too many… oddities in what you've told me. Whatever Ohgi and presumably the rest of the Black Knights want me for, it's important enough that it seems he tried to order you around, but he wouldn't tell you about it, which makes me think they don't want me to know about it. And nobody came to get me, which means it's nothing to do with the war, or at least nothing to do with the fighting."

A sudden thought struck him, and he prayed to the God he didn't believe in that her answer was negative, because otherwise… otherwise he was fairly sure he wouldn't survive until tomorrow, at least not as Zero. The thought bothered him more than he thought it would – with Nunnally dead and C.C. erased, what reason did he really have to live anymore? He turned to look at Kallen, deciding to ask her anyway, because if the worst came to the worst, he might be able to keep her out of it.

"Kallen, did anyone arrive on the Ikagura before you got here? Anyone from Britannia?"

"Uhh… I'm not sure, I don't know anything specific, but I heard a few rumours while I was coming to get you that someone had arrived from Britannia to negotiate for Cornelia's release. Don't know who – I was going to tell you about it on the way there."

That was it. Schneizel was here, and the Black Knights knew who he was. Nobody else would have dared to come aboard the Ikagura, and the White Prince was a man of politics far more than he was a man of war.

He'd have used the excuse that he was here for Cornelia, and that's what everyone would assume, but Schneizel knew who he was, and thanks to that bastard he'd once called friend, he had the recording. And his brother had just shown the Black Knights the sort of power he possessed, a weapon that rendered tactics useless, and nullified pretty much any strategy he'd planned on using against Britannia. Between the unspoken threat of F.L.E.I.J.A and what Schneizel knew, there were very few possibilities remaining. The moment he arrived in Warehouse Four, he would either be shot dead, arrested and returned to Britannia, or possibly arrested and _then_ shot dead.

_Think, Lelouch, you have to think. Your move. Perhaps we should start by consolidating the pieces we have._ For some reason, it was difficult to think of Kallen as merely a piece, even for the coldly rational part of him that only existed to manipulate the world to his liking. In fact, he couldn't stomach the idea of using Kallen as a method to victory, not when the path could lead to her death.

But wait… there was no victory here, was there? Deep down, Lelouch knew there was nothing he could do. He couldn't run, Zero didn't run and he suspected Schneizel would at the very least have a guard out, just in case. He couldn't hide – the Black Knights had enough people to search the whole of the Ikagura, and Zero did not hide.

But neither could he fight, not with words nor actions. He doubted they'd be open to anything he said – Schneizel had got in first, and even if he was a Britannian prince, well, so was Lelouch, and even if some of his evidence wasn't quite right, Lelouch would still seem like the guilty party before he could say anything. And the problem with Schneizel's evidence was that it was so close to the truth that Lelouch couldn't disprove it. Hell, the only things his brother would have wrong would be the reason behind Euphie's massacre, and he doubted the Black Knights would be satisfied with reasons.

Why did he care about this though? The Black Knights were going to betray him, and even if he understood why, the facts of the matter remained. They were going to turn traitor on him, sell him out to the enemy, after everything he'd done for them. After he'd _created _them. And right after his sister—_Nunnally,_ a corner of his mind wept—had been killed? It shouldn't even matter to him that he couldn't find a way out of this, not with her gone and their betrayal and everything else. He should hate them as much as he hated Britannia. But for some reason, whenever he pictured the Black Knights as a concept in his mind, he saw Kallen, and even the thought of his hatred died as quickly as it came. For reasons he could neither explain nor understand, she made him almost want to get out of this, rather than just accept the inevitable, and let Britannia finally take something from him that he _didn't_ value.

Speaking of Kallen, he realized two things. One, she'd been staring at him for a while, probably wondering what he was brooding about, but she blushed slightly and looked away when he turned his gaze to her. Two, he was going to make sure that even if he didn't survive, they wouldn't take her down with him. For she was something he… he _valued_, in every sense of the word he knew. He would protect her from what was going to happen, somehow. And so he finally decided what he wanted to do. He didn't like it, not at all, even if he didn't quite know why the thought of losing her hurt as much as it did, but it was the only course he had left. So he began to speak, his voice a mixture of urgency and command.

"Kallen, I need you to listen to me – please don't interrupt until I've finished talking. It is almost certain that the Black Knights, or at least the highest echelons of command, know who I am, as well as about my Geass and everything I've done with it, including the story behind Euphie's massacre—don't interrupt, you'll find out later. I also suspect Schneizel—yes, I think the visitor was Schneizel—will have at least insinuated I may have used it on them as well."

He paused, collecting his thoughts as Kallen's face shifted through expressions, from shock to something that seemed like fear, but fear of what he wasn't sure. Probably fear of him.

"So, Kallen, do you trust me?"

"Yes, Zero." Her response was a lot faster than he thought it would be.

"Good. I have a plan, but I need your cooperation. As such, you _must _obey any order I give you, understand?"

Her expression morphed into one of confusing, mixed with a slight wariness as to what his plan entailed, or perhaps why he specified he needed her to obey his every order.

"And Kallen, if the worst comes to the worst, I want you to remember one thing. You are far more than just a piece on my chessboard, far more than just another soldier in this bloody war. If nothing else, never forget that, I beg of you."

Before she could say anything else, before he could wonder what the kindling flame behind her eyes meant, before he could wonder why she blushed and looked away, he donned his masks and walked towards the door, opening it and heading towards the lift that would take them to Warehouse Four.

"Shall we?"

She followed hastily, and as the elevator descended, Lelouch almost started chuckling – just as hell, domain of demons and the souls of the damned lay below, so too did he move down to damn his own soul, to solidify himself as a demon. The half-thought that followed, _to save an angel_, he dismissed as merely the ramblings of his own mind as he headed to what could be his death.

He removed his Zero mask, hands brushing his face as it came off just before the lift doors opened, and as Kallen looked at him oddly before determinedly walking out before him, he threw it, skittering it across the floor, before walking out behind her. The moment the gunfire tore down around it as viciously bright floodlights burned the floor around him, he knew his suspicions were correct. Strangely, by some odd quirk of fate, every shot missed the mask as it slowly rolled to present the 'face' of Zero towards where, now that his eyes had adjusted, he could see all his most senior officers, and Tamaki, arranged with assault rifles. By the looks of it, Tamaki was the only one who'd fired – he'd probably panicked, thinking they were under attack. Some of them were wearing visors, but Chiba wasn't, perhaps trusting that he'd already Geassed her and couldn't do so again. Or perhaps she just wanted to see his face properly as they cast him out. The reasons didn't matter. Tamaki wasn't wearing one either, but knowing Tamaki he'd probably just discarded it sometime during the wait.

Surprisingly, the first voice he heard was Kallen's – it seemed between the mask, the fact he'd arrived before them without it and Tamaki's gunfire, they'd been too shocked to speak.

"What the hell is going on here?" Her voice was outraged – it seemed she hadn't quite accepted the truth of his words. Her tone reminded him of his own, the day he'd confronted the Emperor about his mother. It was not an event he cared to draw parallels to.

"Isn't it obvious, Kallen? These," he gestured almost casually towards the row of men and women staring him down with assault rifles, "These traitors have decided to stage a coup, to hand me over to my brother. Curse their sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

He paused before speaking again, not moving his head like they didn't even deserve to meet his gaze, tone shifting to one of even more sardonic disdain, if that were even possible.

"Tell me, oh Todoh of Miracles, what was I worth? A free Japan, perhaps? Not that it's really within Schneizel's power to grant such a thing, considering he's not the Emperor."

He sensed he'd both stuck a nerve with his last statement and confused them, if the reactions he got were anything to go by. Ohgi's voice echoed out, almost as outraged as Kallen's was previously, and Todoh's almost cut across his at the same time.

"Shut up, _Zero_," Ohgi almost spat, "You're the only traitor here, you manipulative Britannian bastard."

"What do you mean it's not within his power?" Todoh's face was thunderous, and his gaze like the lightning that accompanied the thunder, but his voice was much more restrained than Ohgi's, like the calm before the storm.

"Ah, so you did trade me for Japan. Schneizel certainly got the bargain out of that one."

Todoh's face twisted into anger, as did Ohgi's and every other Black Knight – his taunts and arrogance seemed to be hitting the mark. Kallen didn't turn to look at him, but he could sense that her expression was thoroughly confused. She was close enough that he could whisper to her, and so he did. Two words. "Trust me."

She nodded, arms still spread wide from where she shielded him from their fire. Before he could do anything about it, Chiba's voice rang out, filled with anger.

"Give it up, traitor! You've played us for far too long with your despicable Geass, and now you're going to pay."

"Well, I'll agree with you on that one, I've certainly been playing you. I wonder, did you ever stop to think about your callsigns? P-1, B-1, N-1, R-1, even Q-1. Sound an awful lot like chess designations, don't they?"

He smiled as arrogantly as he could, like he was the one winning here, whereas in reality he'd already lost. All he could do was protect Kallen, and he'd make damned sure he did that. He wondered if her expression was conflicted, if she was wondering if he was lying then or lying now. Not that it mattered, either way she'd be safe, but for some reason the thought of her doubting him hurt. He brushed away the thought and continued to speak.

"But I guess that never crossed your minds. No wonder you were so easy to manipulate. Of course, now you've caught me. War has always been the grand game, hasn't it? The only place where you can gamble with lives, with countries, rather than other, petty things."

The more he spoke, the angrier the Black Knights became – he could see some of them fingering their guns, like they were planning to shoot him now rather than just hand him over. Good. Now all he needed was to get Kallen out of the way, and deprive Schneizel of his victory. Lelouch might not have been able to win this exchange himself, but he could at least make sure his brother didn't either. Tamaki's voice rang out, and Lelouch smiled. _Excellent._

"Quit talking big while you're hiding behind a woman, _Zero_!" Along the wrong, he could see Chiba raising her rifle slightly, like she was preparing to shoot. Tamaki's was already up – nobody else had seemed to notice. Smile widening as everything fell into place, Lelouch brushed past Kallen, whispering as he moved.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry it had to be like this. But my life has no value to me, not anymore."

For the first time since he'd arrived, Lelouch raised his gaze, where the burning wings of Geass illuminated his left eye, the eye he'd been hiding from them until the time was right. So intent was he on his task, he missed Kallen's soft whisper of "It has value to me."

"So what are you waiting for? _Shoot me._"

The command soared through the air, seemingly pointless – after all, the Black Knights were all wearing their visors, weren't they? By the time the rest realized it, Chiba and Tamaki were already depressing their triggers. The bullets tore towards him, little lumps of lead oblivion bringing his one-way ticket to the void, to the nothingness that lay beyond everything.

"Yes, your majesty!"

As he closed his eyes, he swore he heard Kallen moving before he lost all sensation.

* * *

Come one, come all, and welcome to my newest fic! As you may have guessed, this is a rewrite of the betrayal scene. Unlike Extinguished, however, it's not intended to be a one-shot, so if you like it, rejoice, because there's more to come! =D

No, I'm not cancelling Breath of Life or putting it on hiatus, the idea for this just came to me, plus a few other hopefully really awesome scenes that relied on the initial premise. So I decided to start writing, and 6,000 words later I'd finished this chapter. Hopefully you like it =P

So, first things first, what do you think? Does the story intrigue you? Do you have any guesses on what's going to happen next chapter, or indeed further into the future? I promise you, this story will roughly follow canon, but suffice to say that knowing what happens next in canon will not necessarily tell you what's going to happen next in _Second Chance._ Or maybe it will. Who knows? Oh, right, me. Carry on!

Anyways… that's actually about it from me for this chapter, apart from requesting reviews – I really like them (seriously, I get rather excited about reviews, big or small), and more importantly, they tell me whether the story is on the right track or not. But you've probably all heard that before anyway =P

Until next time,

Magery


	2. If There's A Future

**They've killed him once already. All it did was piss him off. **

* * *

Awareness. Nothingness. Awareness. She flickered, cycling through states so quickly they blended into one another, like a waking dream where she wasn't quite sure what was real and what wasn't. One moment she was moving, reactions faster than thought but body painstakingly, infuriatingly slow, trying to outrun death. The next? She crashed into imposing steel, into a dark knight that was as familiar to her as he was, highlighted by molten sparks and heralded by the crashing cymbals of bullets against armour.

What was the Shinki—nothingness. She was missing another slice of time, of _life_; the world had changed, but she had not. The black and gold sentinel soared through the air, already outside the hangar. Its master was safe… No, he wasn't. Not as long as she wasn't with him.

By the time Ohgi screamed for everyone to hunt him down, Kallen was halfway to the Guren. By the time any of them remembered she was there, she'd boarded, turned and crippled their Knightmares, float system already powering up. She took off, a streak of crimson brighter than the sun, burning towards her target like a meteor. Then she saw it, saw the Mordred preparing to unleash its massively powerful Hadron Cannon – _the Stark Hadron Cannon_, a corner of her mind told her. But she was too far away! She couldn't get in between the Shinkiro and the blast before the Knight of Six could fire, not even in the SEITEN.

And so she did the only thing she could, the only thing that had even the slightest chance of succeeding, because for once, she had the technological advantage. For once, she had something greater than anything her enemies could field. For once, she was the one in true control of the battlefield. Kallen unleashed every ounce of speed her Knightmare had, accelerating faster and faster until she slammed into the Mordred with astonishing force. She was so fast its sensors hadn't picked her up, and she hit the frame itself just before it fir—nothingness. Reality returned, but something had been stripped away, a few brief moments that made all the difference.

She saw the Hadron beam roaring through the air, saw it hitting the Shinkiro just after it blinked, for that the only way she could describe it: here when her eyelids closed for a fraction of a second, there when they opened a few scant moments later. The dark knight had moved from what would have been safety right into the path of destruction, thinking itself taking the path to freedom. As her mind screamed at her, as the explosion tore a hole in her reality, she couldn't fight one thought. _If I'd left everything alone, he would be safe._

Then she saw something plunging through the air.

* * *

_So this is what dying is like._ Lelouch plummeted, drifting on the edge of unconsciousness, unaware of anything except the sensation of falling. He didn't notice the wind howling around him, didn't hear his name screamed from the confines of a metal cage, didn't see the smile on his fake-yet-real brother's face just before the explosion consumed him. All he felt was a sense of dropping, of the ground drawing closer with every painful, passing breath.

That was another thing he was aware of. Pain. It pulsed through his body with every heartbeat, yet somehow rendered everything numb. He knew he was experiencing it, but he didn't feel it. It was like he should be screaming, but screaming just… wasn't important. Nothing seemed to be important, compared to the fall. It was so… peaceful. Lelouch knew he would die when he hit the ground (or more accurately, the ocean), die in a broken, shattered wreck, but that was somehow irrelevant. Perhaps he'd already died. What did it matter?

He slowly opened his eyes, somehow, but all he saw was red. He was still wondering if it was blood or not when he blacked out.

* * *

Time passed. She sat there, watching him. Watching his chest rise and fall, so slowly she sometimes missed it and rushed over to him, praying that he hadn't died. Tracing his scars with her eyes, following them as they marred his perfect face, as they stretched down his pale torso. Averting her eyes from the burns she'd covered as best she could, pretending they didn't exist.

They were on Kamine Island, the place where in many ways everything began. It almost amused her, the fact that they'd ended up there, but she couldn't laugh, not at anything. Not with him lying there like that, like a… like a dead man. Like a soulless automaton, living and breathing but never, ever human. _Wake up, Lelouch! Why won't you wake up!?_

She didn't know she'd spoken aloud until he stirred, head tilting slightly from side to side like he was trying to find the source of the noise. Kallen rushed over, kneeling by his side as his eyes slowly, slowly opened, violet gaze pinning her to the spot. He spoke, haltingly, almost incoherent.

"Wher… where am… I?"

The last word almost seemed too much, as he faded slightly, slumping backwards – she didn't even notice he'd raised himself slightly until she caught him just before his head struck the hard stone. His hair was soft, almost silky, everything like she'd imagined. She almost wanted to start running her hands through it, and for a moment she did before she realized what she was doing and flushed bright red. Lelouch didn't seem to notice; he was gazing into her eyes as he started to speak again, his voice much stronger.

"Where are we?"

"Kamine Island." she answered.

Lelouch shot up, or at least tried to – his head rose up about ten centimetres before he physically shuddered with pain, almost toppling off the rock she'd rested him on.

"Shh, don't try to move."

"I have to… the Emperor will be here soon. He's… immortal. He has to be stopped. We need… to get to the… cave."

_Immortal?_ _That doesn't make any sen… Geass. It has to be something to do with Geass._

"You're not in any condition to walk."

"Then carry… me." It would have been an order, but his voice almost failed towards the end, slipping into something like a plea. Not that it would have mattered, anyway. She could see how serious he was; she knew if she didn't help him he'd kill himself trying to get there. So she bent down, lifting him up slowly and carefully. His arm slipped around her shoulder, and as he clutched her like a dying man clutches the hope, she tried not to think how much it felt like he belonged there.

The two of them moved through the forest, Lelouch hobbling, barely using his legs as she dragged him gently forwards. They couldn't use the Guren to get there – Lelouch might be too unfocused to have thought of that (or perhaps too focused on one, solitary goal), but Kallen had, and she'd dismissed it. Everyone was looking for the two of them; the moment she took to the air was the moment they found her. So instead she'd hidden the Guren as best she could, and resigned herself to walking everywhere for a few days.

As she almost-carried him through the forest, she wondered how he was still functioning. When she'd caught him, swooping down like an owl on a fieldmouse but a thousand times gentler, he'd been covered in burns, scars from exploding shrapnel and debris and one of his legs had been at an angle that looked just a little too… wrong. She'd patched him up as best she could, finding a suitable branch to make a splint for his leg and using what medical supplies she had to try and save his life. Kallen was amazed he was conscious, let alone even slightly coherent. _Maybe mind over matter really does work._

It took them almost an hour to get there, walking from where she'd set the Guren down to where they'd captured the Gawain the last time they were here – thankfully, Kallen thought, she'd remembered seeing the small clearing in front of the cave from the air, and decided land as close to it as she could, before she'd been forced to change course thanks to a few now-destroyed Britannian Knightmares. But she'd made sure she knew where it was anyway.

As they wandered, so too did her mind. Her thoughts strayed here and there, from whether Lelouch was ever going to recover from his injuries, to how they were supposed to succeed at taking out Charles di Britannia. But at least they probably had a better shot on their own than with the Black Knights behind them. After all, what's one thing you can accomplish far more easily with two people than with an army? Assassination.

She almost laughed out loud – she'd just realized that with the way things were panning out now, the Black Knights probably had shoot-on-sight orders for the both of them, or at least Lelouch. But that's not what amused her so, no, it was the fact that the force dedicated to protecting the rest of the world from Britannia would be doing its utmost to find, capture and maybe kill the only two people in the world who had a chance of actually killing the Emperor that made her smile. Luckily Lelouch didn't notice; she'd probably have had an interesting time explaining that one.

As they reach the last thicket of trees before the clearing, Kallen paused, pulling her, for want of a better name than one pulled from despised Britannian history texts, service pistol out of her pocket. She'd heard the clash of metal against metal – somebody up ahead was fighting someone else, and she never walked into a battle unarmed if she didn't have to. Lelouch was so exhausted and tired from the journey he didn't even seem to notice as she almost propped him up against a tree and advanced, peering out from behind a trunk. What she saw was… not what she was expecting. Suzaku Kururugi was flying through the air – he hit the ground with a loud thud as Bismarck Waldstein finished what must have been an extraordinarily powerful riposte.

_If Bismarck is here, the Emperor must be as well!_ she thought as she levelled her gun and fired in one smooth movement. Bismarck hadn't quite finished turning towards the sound when her bullet took him in the side and he dropped, Excalibur falling from his hands as his body convulsed in pain. Kallen wasn't surprised to see Suzaku already trying to raise himself off the ground to fight his new, unseen enemy, and so she walked slowly towards him, close enough to shoot him even if he tried to dodge but too far away for any fancy disarming tricks.

The expression on his face as he saw the face of his saviour was priceless.

"Ka-Kallen? You saved me?"

Kallen laughed, a harsh, cruel laugh filled with the memory of the ashes of millions, and theatrically reloaded her pistol.

"The next one's for you."

She was about to fire, and finally kill the man who'd taken far too much from her country already, when a soft, tired voice broke the funereal quiet.

"No."

As she turned to face Lelouch, she knew Suzaku would attack – she'd threatened to kill him, and beyond that there's nothing Suzaku wouldn't do to kill Lelouch after Princess Euphemia's death. She didn't know much about how, or why, but she knew whatever really happened that day (apart from the obvious, of course) turned Suzaku against Lelouch forever. So even as she spun to face him, she lashed out behind her with the textbook beginning of a roundhouse kick. She felt it connect, heard Suzaku's surprised yell of pain and finished the kick, sending him sprawling to the ground.

She pivoted again, towards where she'd heard him land, freezing him in place with a glare and the glinting barrel of her pistol as he tried to get up. Lelouch spoke again from behind her, asking Suzaku a question, and this time the man actually looked at him, his eyes widening almost comically, presumably from the extent of his injuries.

"You came here to kill the Emperor, didn't you?"

For a moment, she thought Suzaku wasn't going to answer. Then he spoke, lowering his eyes. She wasn't sure why he did. Was it because he was somehow ashamed of it? In her opinion, trying to kill Charles di Britannia was probably the only thing he could do to redeem himself even slightly in her eyes. Only slightly, of course. She'd still gun him down without a second's thought – hell, she was half-tempted to do it now, Lelouch be damned.

"Yes, I did."

"He's immortal."

"Then I would have failed." Strangely, Suzaku didn't seem the least bit worried by that. He almost seemed… pleased.

"Euphemia most of all." The change that came over Suzaku was almost instantaneous. Kallen had a fraction of a fraction of a second's warning before Suzaku burst off the ground towards Lelouch, and so she did the only thing she could. She pulled the trigger. Her aim was off because he was moving so quickly, and the bullet winged his shoulder, but at the close range it was enough to spin him around and knock him back into the dirt. He didn't move again, not for a few seconds, like something was physically holding him back.

Slowly his head turned, towards Lelouch, and the venom in his gaze was almost palpable, but strangely he didn't do anything else. She missed the red rings slowly fading around his eyes.

"You dare speak of_ her?_"

Lelouch didn't speak for a while, and as she watched Suzaku intently, she saw the rage fade slowly to… confusion. He'd been staring at Lelouch's face the whole time, completely ignoring the blood leaking from his shoulder. She didn't dare turn to see what he was seeing, but whatever Lelouch's expression was, it wasn't something Suzaku had been expecting. Then Lelouch spoke again, and his voice almost made her cry; if despair was a person, it would have spoken like that. Despair, and righteous anger.

"I have more right than you, Suzaku. You loved her, but all you had to do was watch her die. I loved her, and I had to _kill_ her. She was my _sister_, and I took her soul and then her life, because it's what she would have wanted. Hate me if you wish, but don't you _dare_ tell me I have no right to her memory, or her dreams. It's all either of us have left."

It was testament to how much his tone and his words shook her that the acknowledgement that Lelouch once loved Euphemia went unnoticed, even inside her head.

"HOW IS ANY OF THIS PART OF HER DREAM!?" Suzaku burst out, but as angry as his words were, underneath them Kallen swore she sensed a tone of… horror. As if he'd realized something, something he either didn't want to, or hadn't even considered possible. She didn't know what it was, but the vicious part of her hoped it shook him to the core.

Lelouch's voice was soft and quiet, finally betraying the weariness she imagined he must be feeling in his mind as well as his body.

"Deep down, you know why I've been doing all of this. You could never accept it, but you know it's the truth, don't you?"

Suzaku didn't respond, and the silence stretched ever-onwards until it was finally broken by one short word.

"Yes." Suzaku's voice was as tired as Lelouch's, and his answer slipped out almost reluctantly, like an uncomfortable truth. Which perhaps it was.

"But we have both failed. They are both dead – I took her from you as surely as you took her from me." Lelouch's words confused Kallen, vague and cryptic as they were, but Suzaku seemed to understand perfectly, and she realized that maybe Lelouch was talking about two different people. Euphemia _and_ Nunnally.

"What great fools we were – the Japanese man trying to change Britannia from within, and the Britannian man using Japan to change it from without. Neither of us have anything to show for our quests – even had you ever managed to become the Knight of One, by now you must have realized it would have changed nothing. And as for me, the Black Knights have failed – all I have left is Kallen. But she was always the best of them."

He smiled as he mentioned her name, and Kallen burned with pride; if either Lelouch or Suzaku had been watching her rather than each other, they would have noticed her straighten imperceptibly, like she was standing to attention.

"So it is time to turn to the other half of my heritage. Royal, rather than what Britannia deems common. I might have been banished, but my claim to the throne has never been rescinded. So, tell me Suzaku… who is the one man who can mould Britannia as he sees fit?"

Kallen made the connection just after Suzaku did, but they both spoke as one.

"The Emperor."

Silence fell, as they both realized what Lelouch's true plan was. He hadn't wanted to come here to kill the Emperor – or, at least that wasn't his main goal.

He'd wanted to come here to _become_ the Emperor.

Kallen's jaw dropped.

* * *

Villetta Nu wasn't really sure what was going on right now. She woke up this morning as a Britannian in love with an Eleven, who happened to be one of the highest-ranking members of the Black Knights. A few hours after that, she'd help oust Lelouch vi Britannia, long-lost members of the Royal Family, from his position as Zero. A few hours after _that_, she'd joined with both the Black Knights and Prince Schneizel to quell a schism is the Emperor's personal forces. Or, at least they'd tried to.

They'd been going fairly well at first, destroying Knightmare after Knightmare thanks to a combination of both superior numbers and superior troops. The latter didn't quite make sense, even after all she'd seen and done – the Emperor's forces were supposed to be some of the best in Britannia. The Black Knights probably shouldn't be able to carve through them so easily, but they could.

Then everything took a turn for the worst. It turned out the Emperor's entire force was not much more than a massive distraction – one that, in hindsight, they really should have seen coming. One moment she was lining up to cripple yet another Vincent Ward with her own Knightmare's stun tonfas, and the next her entire squad dropped around her, both Britannians and Japanese. It was testament to her shock that she hadn't even noticed she'd called them Japanese rather than Elevens until after the battle.

She'd looked around in horrified confusion, to see perhaps one of the most terrifying sights in this world – the Guren SEITEN floating right in front of her, twirling its MVS knife in its hands. Then it vanished from her sight into a streak of burning crimson, and Knightmares started to explode on the other side of the battlefield.

She was about to take off after it, certain death be damned, when her sensors screamed a proximity warning, but it was too late. Her Knightmare spiralled towards the ground, float system clipped by a shot she'd never seen coming. Ohgi was screaming in her ear, and she reassured him that she wasn't going to die – she wasn't falling fast enough, and all her ejection systems were working perfectly.

As she fell, she noticed a glint of white on the ground, and her jaw dropped. She'd never liked Suzaku Kururugi, but she'd never been able to fault his loyalty to Britannia… until now, that is. The damaged Lancelot Conquista was set up in what could only be called a sniper's nest, hiding behind, of all things, the Mordred, although a quick glance told her the Morded's cockpit was open and its pilot nowhere to be seen. And he was taking shot after shot, dropping Knightmare after Knightmare.

He didn't even seem to care who he was shooting – shimmering green lanced out of his rifle again and again, destroying target after target. She'd thought he was mainly a close-combat specialist, but it seemed he was a fair sniper as well. She guessed he'd just never had an opportunity to display this skill-set before. As she plummeted to the ground, she'd remembered about her comm array and contacted Ohgi again, telling him exactly what she was seeing.

Ohgi's voice had crackled back over, filled with static – she heard explosions and panicked voices all around him, which worried her, because he was on the Ikagura… which meant the only way she would be hearing those explosions is if they were close by. Very close by. He'd told her to try and take out Kururugi, or at least destroy his gun, or try and do something about him, because Kallen was destroying them out there.

Most of their 'grunt' Knightmares had already been annihilated – not killed, but completely disabled with a terrifying speed and efficiency. Now Kallen was going after the aces, and between the SEITEN, her superior skills and Suzaku's covering fire, she was wrecking them as well. She'd duel them three at a time, fighting off Todoh whilst running rings around Gino and completely ignoring what remained of the Four Holy Swords. Xingke had tried to take her out with the Baryon cannon, but Suzaku had apparently nailed him from behind while he was distracted with aiming, taking out his float system and short-circuiting the cannon.

Their numbers were dropping quickly, and they couldn't even spare the units to go after Suzaku, not between Kallen and what remained of the Emperor's (by now she'd figured out that Lelouch had taken them with Geass) forces. Not that it had worked even when they had the troops – any time someone broke from the fight to take him out, or at least take a shot at him, they left themselves open to Kallen. They'd already had Chiba and the Knight of Twelve taken out of commission that way.

She'd tried to raise her Knightmare's arm to shoot him, but between her out-of-control spiral and the physical barrier of the Mordred, she simply couldn't get a shot at him. Moments later, she'd had to eject as a second shot took out the bottom half of her Vincent. As she fell, she swore she had heard Kururugi exclaim "Scoped and _dropped._"

Which brought her to where she was now, slowly opening the hatch of her ejection pod and pulling out her pistol, just in case. She looked around, not recognizing her surroundings. She was in a forest of some description, presumably the one on Kamine Island—the island she'd been shot out of the air above, because that's where they'd first encountered Lelouch's Geassed forces—but she didn't quite know where the nearest landmark was.

To her right was a large, flat stone, stained with blood – fairly fresh blood at that. Scraps of clothing and the broken half of a stick lay scattered around – she guessed someone had attempted some form of first-aid on someone else. _Wait a minute… Lelouch must have been seriously injured from that explosion. No, don't tell me…_ She'd crash-landed in the exact same place Kallen must have brought Lelouch to? Villetta couldn't help herself – she burst out laughing at the irony. _Maybe this day won't be so bad after all._

She looked around again, and noticed a fairly obvious trail that led away, through the forest. Little splatters of blood were sprinkled on the ground on one side, and there were two sets of footsteps, although one appeared almost drunken. She guessed Lelouch mustn't have been able to walk very well, and Kallen had supported him.

Cocking her revolver, she followed the path as it led through the forest, moving as carefully as she could. She knew Kallen was nowhere near here, but if Lelouch had managed to get Suzaku on side—by all reports, the two of them now hated one another—she couldn't afford to be careless, in case she ran into another unlikely enemy. It took her almost half an hour, but finally the trail led her to the edge of a clearing, beyond which lay what seemed to be the entrance of the cave. There was a fair amount of blood staining the ground halfway between her and the mouth of the cave, but she couldn't see a body, or anything else.

She stepped out from behind the tree she was using to hide herself, and walked carefully towards the darkness… just as Lelouch vi Britannia emerged from the cave, talking rapidly into some form of phone or communicator. He was limping heavily, using a makeshift crutch to help himself along, and from what she could see of his bare skin, he was covered in burns, some of them quite severe.

Villetta couldn't catch what he was saying, but by the looks of it he was barking orders, and he hadn't noticed her yet. She raised the gun, steadying her aim, and he must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, because he looked up, straight at her. She was supposed to take him alive, but right now all she could think about was everything he'd done, how he'd come between her and Ohgi and how many people were dying in the skies above.

The expression on his face as she double-tapped the trigger was priceless.

* * *

C.C. stretched languidly – all this business of saving God, patricide and the distinct lack of pizza had tired her out, and she wanted nothing more than to sleep, Lelouch be damned. If he wanted to kick her out of their borrowed Sutherland's cockpit when he got back, too bad. She was sure Kallen wouldn't mind fitting him in – she wondered if he knew about that. He'd certainly find out soon enough.

Then she heard the gunshots.

Abandoning all thoughts of sleep, she leapt out of the cockpit, ignoring the pain she should have felt from the four-metre fall – nothing really hurt her any more, not for very long. Eight hundred years is a long time to get used to shrugging off hurt.

She raced out of the cave, to see Lelouch collapsed on the ground, crimson life leaking out of his chest. Villetta Nu stood over his body, phone out – presumably taking a photo of his body to serve as proof he was really dead. The woman straightened, saw C.C. barrelling down on her and for a split-second, looked like she was going to shoot her. She must have realized it wouldn't really achieve anything, because she turned and ran as C.C. skidded to a stop beside Lelouch, but she was too late to do anything. She heard Kallen screaming out his name over the radio he'd been using to communicate, as well as Suzaku's almost-panicked questions, but she ignored them both, reaching down to close his eyes.

He was already dead.

Shoving down her own panic, her own pain, her own sense of _loss_, she picked up the communicator and started speaking over Kallen, who was half-screaming Lelouch's name, half violently cursing the world. C.C. could barely see the battle above, but from what she could tell, Kallen had gone beserk.

"Kallen, stop! Stick to the plan!"

"WHY!?" Kallen's anguished shout burst from the radio, and C.C. staggered backwards slightly from the sheer volume. She searched her mind for an answer… but she couldn't find one. A corner of her mind noted that was a first for her – usually she had an answer for anything and everything.

But why should Kallen stop? He was dead.

_Dead._

* * *

Schneizel el Britannia gazed intently at the screen in front of him, watching the live broadcast from the throne room in New Pendragon. The Emperor was about to address the nation. Or, at least, supposedly he was, but Schneizel knew something was wrong. If it truly was the Emperor, Schneizel would have been informed, be it by one of Charle's servants or his own sources. He had heard nothing. Yet apparently the message had come from the Knight of One. He was confused, and that worried him. The White Prince had made it a habit of _never_ being confused.

However, Schneizel knew one thing for certain, and felt strangely pained by it – whatever was going couldn't have anything to do with Lelouch. He'd seen the pictures Villetta Nu had taken, seen the bullet holes in his brother's chest. He'd even sent a search party back, and even though they hadn't found any sign of C.C., as the green-haired woman was supposedly called, nor of Kallen Kozuki or Suzaku Kururugi, they had found a massive pool of dried blood. Too much blood for any one man to have survived losing.

At the thought of Kururugi, Schneizel's eyes narrowed unconsciously. He suspected the man had been Geassed, for what other reason would he have turn his back on everything he'd been striving for to apparently ally with the one man he hated above all others?

Britannia's racial prejudice be damned, everyone knew that out of all the Knights of the Round, Kururugi was by far the most talented and the most dangerous, with the exception of Knight of One. To have him _and _Kallen Kozuki on the same side… secretly, Schneizel was worried. Lelouch was easily smart enough to have set a chain of command when Geassing Suzaku, so it was more likely than not he was still under the control of C.C. or Kozuki.

Schneizel usually enjoyed a challenge, but even he wasn't looking forward to how many lives he predicted he'd have to waste to take the two of them down. He had no problem with sacrificing lives for the greater good – the problem he had was when their deaths were unnecessary. Sure, taking down Suzaku and Kozuki would be for the greater good, but the only way he could think of ensuring their deaths was through FLEIJA, and as unconcerned as he acted about it, he didn't really want to take out millions of people unless he had no choice about the matter. Perhaps he'd have a better plan, later on, but for now, FLEIJA and the Damocles were the only options he had, and he didn't like it. But he'd still do what it took for peace, for the greater good.

He turned back to the screen, watching as… Kallen Kozuki marched out in a formal pilot's uniform, similar to the one she'd been captured in, eyes scanning the rooms for threats. If he'd been there, Schneizel knew he'd be hearing frantic gossip as the assembled Britannian hierarchy discussed what on earth was happening and called the guards to kill her. He wouldn't have joined in, of course, he was too important and reserved for that sort of thing, but he'd certainly have been thinking on the same lines. After all, he was doing so now. And wondering why she was there, or indeed how she'd manage to bypass every other guard and security checkpoint in the palace. He assumed it had something to do with Kururugi.

Then his jaw dropped, because Zero walked out behind her.

Zero. Lelouch vi Britannia, his wayward brother and a man very much dead.

What the _hell_ was going on here?

* * *

**March 2nd: Schneizel's scene has been retconned. Kallen is the one escorting Zero, not Suzaku, which is how it was planned to happen. Somehow I got their two roles mixed up.**

**Author's Note:**

HOLD THE PRESSES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. MAGERY HAS RETURNED!

Yes, that's right, I'm not actually dead, or abducted, or even off infiltrating Sunrise to get them to continue Code Geass (honestly, I swear!). What I've really been doing is… not writing.

No, I don't really have any excuses, I had plenty of spare time even between working, preparing for university (ickle Magery is a first-year now!), saying goodbye to friends who are moving away for their own studies, playing Mass Effect 2 and 3 (kudos to anyone who caught the references in this chapter) and everything else.

However, in the last few days, I suddenly and inexplicably (and quite happily, I must admit) had a fresh bout of both inspiration and desire to write. So I sat down and finally finished this chapter, over two months since the last update. Sorry about the wait – I promise you the next chapter, even with all the reading it seems I'll be doing for the law half of my degree, should come out faster. Hell, part of the reason this chapter has been so long in coming is that I wanted to skip past it and get to what I have planned for the next one, but knew I couldn't, which kind of killed my inspiration somewhat.

Anyway, moving on, let's get to the story. What do you think? To paraphrase Schneizel, what the hell is going on there? I promise you I know the answer to that question =P

And before anyone mentions it, the time-skip in between Kallen's POV and Villetta's is there deliberately. I am not skimping out on writing what happened in between – it will be revealed in flashbacks by various characters as the story progresses. The reason I haven't included it is because it would ruin some of the surprises I have coming too early. And nobody wants to not be surprised, right?

Oh, and just because Kallen thought Lelouch was unconscious doesn't mean he was. He just didn't know she was there, and so he was half-resting, half-planning what to do about Charles. Then he had the length of the walk to keep planning. And then there's the time-skip. Just in case anyone is wondering about his conversation with Suzaku and Kallen, and then what Villetta described as having happen =P

Right, well, that's about it from me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and even though I probably don't have the right to say this, I do enjoy reviews, and they do make me enjoy my writing more. Believe it or not, one of the reasons I ended up finishing this chapter is because I went over, read all the reviews for the first chapter and realized that I'd left a lot of people hanging for far too long. But I digress.

Until next time,

Magery

P.S for the last few days, I've been looping two songs. Radioactive by Imagine Dragons and Now by Paramore (the chapter title comes from the latter). Go listen to them! =D


	3. ON HIATUS

**Unlike winter, the next chapter update is ****_not_**** coming.**

* * *

This one is probably slightly more surprising than the one for Breath of Life, but it is with much regret that I equally declare Second Chances on hiatus, duration unknown.

I know what I said in my last Author's Note, and much of it is true: the third chapter of Second Chances is the one I will enjoy writing the most, except for perhaps one scene in the fourth chapter. However, I am also an overconfident idiot some of the time, and my powers of precognition could do with a little fine-tuning. Suffice to say it turns out that law requires even more work than I thought it did (I believe I have mentioned this point in the note for Breath of Life), and beyond that, it is extremely difficult to write one Code Geass fanfiction when you have ideas and scenes for four others knocking around in your head. For a more detailed explanation of all my reasons, read the note for Breath of Life - repeating myself serves no purpose except to increase this note's word count.

I've certainly said this before, but I feel it is a point worth making: I apologize for tricking you all into believing that the third chapter has finally been released, but I feel slight annoyance now and knowledge for the future is a better option that an indeterminate wait which may stretch out for two or three months more.

You will know when my fics are off hiatus when their next chapter comes out, and I promise you that the next time you receive an email about this, or any of my other stories, or see them pop up in the story feed again, it will be with the updates I owe you all.

Like I said in the Breath of Life note, I will still be on this site, simply because one of the functions of having my emails open is informing me when I get PMs or when stories update, so if anyone does want to contact me, I will get back to you, and a lot, lot more promptly than my tardiness with story updates would have you believe. That is, of course, if anyone actually does want to talk to me =P

Until next time,

Magery


End file.
